ENGLAND.

England is the largest and the richest part of GB. Its’ capital is London. The biggest industrial cities are London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, and other interesting cities as York, Chester, Oxford, and Cambridge.

Stonehenge is one of the most popular prehistoric places in England. It is situate in the south-west of England. It is a circle of enormous stones (4 meters high) 80 meters across. Why it was built—is a mystery. However, there are suggestions. One explorers say that it used to be an ancient observatory (there some astronomic sence in the position of stones), others—a temple and so on.

American English.

In the early part of the seventeenth century English settlers began to bring their language to America, and another series of changes began to take place. The settlers borrowed words from Indian languages for such strange trees as the hickory and persimmon, such unfamiliar animals as raccoons and woodchucks. Later they borrowed other words from settlers from other countries – for instance, chowder and prairie from the French, scow and sleigh from the Dutch. They made new combinations of English words, such as backwoods and bullfrog, or gave old English words entirely new meanings, such as  lumber ( which in British English means approximately junk ) and corn ( which in British means any grain, especially wheat ). Some  of the new terms were needed, because there were new and un-English things to talk about. Others can be explained only on the general theory that languages are always changing, and American English is no exception.

EDUCATION IN RUSSIA

 Secondary education is mandatory in Russia. Children start school at the

age of 6 and finish at 17 . As a rule, a child attends the school located

in the neighborhood,the one which is the closes to home . However , there

in  big cities there are also so-called "special" schools , offering more

in-depth  studies of the major European  languages ( English , French, or 

German), or the advanced courses in physics and mathematics, and children

attending one of these may have to commute from home. There are no school

buses in Russia.

 The first stage of education is elementary school for grades 1 through 4.

The  second  is secondary school for grades 5 through 9 . Upon graduation

from secondary school ( which  is  not the equivalent of having completed

their  secondary  education ) , students  are  given the choice of either

continuing to attend the same school (high school; grades 10 and 11 ), or

entering a vocational school or trade school. Both vocational school  and

trade schools are meant to  provide  one , long  with  the certificate of

secondary  education, with a number of useful skills ( e.g. , those of an

electrician, technical, or computer operator ).One attends the former for

two years, and the latter for three or four.

Easter Island

One of the world's most famous yet least visited archaeological sites, Easter Island is a small, hilly, now treeless island of volcanic origin. Located in the Pacific Ocean at 27 degrees south of the equator, some 2200 miles (3600 kilometers) off the coast of Chile, the island is 63 square miles in size and has extinct volcanoes rising to 1500 feet. In the early 1950s, the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl (famous for his Kon-Tiki raft voyages across the oceans) popularized the idea that the island, called Rapa Nui by the natives, had been originally settled by advanced societies of Indians from the coast of South America. Extensive archaeological, ethnographic, and linguistic research has conclusively shown this hypothesis to be inaccurate. It is now recognized that the original inhabitants of Easter Island are of Polynesian stock (DNA extracts from skeletons have recently confirmed this), that they most probably came from the Marquesas or Society islands, and that they arrived around AD 380 to 400. At the time of their arrival, the island was entirely covered in thick forests and was teeming with land birds. It was the richest seabird breeding site in Polynesia and probably in the whole Pacific. Within a matter of centuries this profusion of wildlife was entirely destroyed by the islanders' way of life. The reasons are today eminently clear.

Fedor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)    

 The Russian writer Dostoevski is regarded as one of the world's great novelists. In Russia he was surpassed only by Leo Tolstoi.

   Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevski was born on Nov. 11, 1821, in a Moscow hospital where his father was a physician. At 13 Fedor was sent to a Moscow boarding school, then to a military engineering school in St. Petersburg. Shortly after graduating he resigned his commission in order to devote his time to writing.

Computers

       When Charles Babbage, a professor of Mathematics at Cambridge university, invented the first calculating machine in 1812 he couldn’t imagine the situation we find ourselves in today. Nearly everything we do in the world is helped, or even controlled by computers, the complicated descedants of his simple machine. Computers are used more and more often in the world today, for the simple reason that they are far more efficent than human beings. They have much better memories and they can store much information. No man alive can do 500000 sums in one second, but a computer can. In fact, computers can do many of the things we do, but faster and better. They can predict weather, and ever play chess, write poetry or compose music.

The use of computers

        Just as television has extended human sight across the barriers of time and distance, so the computers extend the power of the human mind across the existing barriers.

Cites of the USA

Amounts large and famous American cites are Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Washington is the capital of the USA. It is situated on the Potomac River in the District of Columbia. D. Washington chose the place. The city was founded in 1791 and named after the first president. Now Washington is the residents of the president and the congress. The center of the city is on Capital Hill. This building houses both the senate and a House of Representatives. The White House is one of the oldest buildings in the city. It is the president’s residents. Washington is a large scientific and cultural center. There are five universities in the city. The national academy of sciences and the library of congress are in Washington too. The national museum, the old and new national galleries of art, Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln memorials are among the city sites.

John Cabot, an Italian sea captain in the pay of the British, discovered Canada in 1497, five years after Columbus discovered America. He planted a huge cross on the shore and sailed home, with the news that he had reached north east China , the land of the Great Khan , and that the sea was full of fish.

In 1534 , the French explorer, Jacques Cartier, sailed right down the St.Lawrence River until he could go no further. Among the great forests along the shore he met Indians who welcomed him, but in return he kidnapped some of their chiefs . He was the first European to treat the Indians with cruelty and treachery. It was almost another hundred years before French colonists settled on the banks of the St Lawrence and founded Quebec. They were sent there to give food and shelter to the French fur traders, who were carrying on a profitable trade with the Indians.

By the middle of the 18th century, the French in North America realized that they could not avoid a fight to the death with the British and their American colonists, but back in France the French king , Louis XV , was too busy with his wars with Prussia to bother much about what was going on in the ‘ Land of Ice and Snow’. So the French troops in Canada did not receive the supplies they needed so badly, and the few ships that did try to get through  were usually captured by British warships.

British Royal ceremonies. Introduction.

         British people are proud of pageants and ceremonies of the national capital – London. Many of them are world famous and attract numerous tourists from all over the world. They include daily ceremonies and annuals. Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace at 11.30 a. m., Ceremony of the Keys at 10 p. m. in the Tower, Mounting the Guard at the Horse Guards square are most popular daily ceremonies. Of those which are held annually  the oldest are the most cherished are: the glorious pageantry of Trooping the Color, which marks the official birthday of the Queen (the second Saturday in June); Firing the Royal Salute to mark anniversaries of the Queen’s Accession on February 6 and her birthday on April 21; opening of the Courts marking the start of the Legal Year in October; and Lord Mayor’s Show on the second Saturday in November, when the newly elected Lord Mayor is driven in the beautiful guilded coach pulled by six white horses to take the Royal Court of Justice where he takes his oath of office and becomes second in importance in the City only to the Sovereign (Queen).

British Parliament.

Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy. This means that it has a monarch as its Head of the State. The monarch reigns with the support of Parliament. The powers of the monarch are not defined precisely. Everything today is done in the Queen’s name. It is her government, her armed forces, her law courts and so on. She appoints all the Ministers, including the Prime Minister. Everything is done however on the advice of the elected Government, and the monarch takes no part in the decision-making process.

Once the British Empire included a large number of countries all over the world ruled by Britain. The process of decolonisation began in 1947 with the independence of India, Pakistan and Ceylon. Now there is no Empire and only few small islands belong to Britain. In 1997 the last colony, Hong Kong, was given to China. But the British ruling classes tried not to lose influence over the former colonies of the British Empire. An association of former members of the British Empire and Britain was founded in 1949. It is called the Commonwealth. It includes many countries such as Ireland, Burma, the Sudan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and others. The Queen of Great Britain is also a Head of the Commonwealth, and also the Queen of Canada, Australia, New Zealand...